Many electric bike makers are still using regular bike spokes, this is silly because the extra torque the hub motor has. We eventually moved into using motorcycle spokes on the HyBikes, this eliminated spokes breaking as long as you check the tension every once in a while.

that may be true but the chineese metal rims bend easily. back to the drawing board.

Yes, but this is a factory built wheel being rebuilt by the lowest guy* on the totem pole at the shop fixing it, not a wheel built by a competent wheel builder. So it likely should have been checked after a bit of riding.


* How do we know this? Because a heavy electric bike wheel is not sexy enough for the real (if they even have one) wheel builder to deal with.

I have a Trek 7100, non-electric bike. For the first year of ownership, 26 spokes had broken. I would be on a perfectly smooth road, and a spoke would snap. I could hear the snap. The dealer was very good, and fixed all the spokes for no charge. The distributor related information that Trek had obtained these spokes and wheels from China, and the spoke steel was faulty. Finally just to eliminate the aggravation factor, i ordered a new wheel with heavy duty spokes. Seven years later, i'm still using the wheel with the heavy duty spokes and have no more problems.